The Feldenkrais Method: Teaching by Handling : A Technique for Individuals

223 Pages·1983·9.61 MB·English

by  Yochanan Rywerant

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Functional Integration for more than fifty years.
Today he leads seminars and training sessions in
the United States and throughout the world. His book
was authorized by Dr. Feldenkrais.
Basic
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The information contained in this book is based upon the research and personal and
professional experiences of the author. It is not intended as a substitute for consult
ing with your physician or other healthcare provider. Any attempt to diagnose and
treat an illness should be done under the direction of a healthcare professional.
The publisher does not advocate the use of any particular healthcare protocol but
believes the information in this book should be available to the public. The pub
lisher and author are not responsible for any adverse effects or consequences result
ing from the use of the suggestions, preparations, or procedures discussed in this
book. Should the reader have any questions concerning the appropriateness of any
procedures or preparation mentioned, the author and the publisher strongly suggest
consulting a professional healthcare advisor.
Basic Health Publications
8200 Boulevard East
North Bergen, NJ 07047
1-201-868-8336
This book is published in association with the K. S. Giniger Company, Inc.,
Publishers, 250 West 57th Street, New York, New York 10107.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ryvverant,1{ochanan, 1922-
The Feldenkrais method: teaching by handling / 1{ochanan Ryvverant;
illustrations by Daniela Mohor.
p.;cm.
Originally published: San Francisco: Harper & Row, c1983.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-59120-022-9
1. Feldenkrais method.
[DNLM: 1. Manipulation, Orthopedic-methods. 2. Kinesthesis.
3. Massage-methods. 4. Neuromuscular Diseases-therapy.
WE 541 R998f 1983a1 I. F eldenkrais, Moshe, 1904- II. Title.
RC489.F44R98 2003
616.7'0622-dc22
2003015302
First Basic Health Publications Printing September 2003
Copyright © 1983 by Yochanan Rywerant
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other
wise, without the prior written consent of the copyright owner.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Contents
Foreword, vii
Preface, ix
Acknowledf:flnents, X111
Introduction, 1
PART I: Manipulation and Teaching
1. Manipulation as Nonverbal Communication between
Teacher and Pupil, 9
2. The Approach to Communicative Manipulation, 19
PART II: The Basic Technique
3. The Unit of Communicative Manipulation
(The Manipulon), 29
4. A Classification of Manipulons, 45
5. The Various Modes of the Pupil's Response:
The Limbic and Cortical Levels of Control, 57
PART III: Further Technical Considerations
6. Some Physical Principles Involved in Functional
Integration, 89
7. Increasing Efficiency: Directions of Movement, Timing,
and the Teacher's Own Body Awareness, 99
PART IV: Working Through Sessions
8. The Form of the Manipulatory Session, 109
9. Schematic Outlines of a Few Model Sessions, 115
10. A Few Typical and Often-Encountered Manifestations
of Inefficient Neuromotor Organization, 145
11. Additional Do's and Don'ts for a Future Practitioner, 175
PART V: Illustrative Case Histories
12. The Story of Hanoch's Return to the Flute, 181
13. Improving the Ability to Perform, 191
14. Remarks on Pain, Function, and Structure, 199
15. Reflections on the Creative Process, 205
Notes, 211
Bibliography, 213
Index, 215
Foreword
Yochanan was a teacher of physics in one of the best schools ofIsrael. He
was at that twenty-eight years running.
Later he joined the Feldenkrais School. He worked thirteen and a
half years within close quarters in the same room in which I worked. He
has his own "handwriting" like all the others. Everyone learns the
method without imitating his teacher. Yochanan is not imitating any
body.
The book in front of you should be reread several times. That way
you are likely to get most of the goodness of the book. Good luck!
-M. Feldenkrais
Tel Aviv, Israel
Vll
Preface
The Feldenkrais Method: Teaching by Handling is a momentous publica
tion, because it makes accessible a unique form of human education.
The book is a presentation of the system of Functional Integration
devised by the Israeli scientist Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais. The Feldenkrais
system is a way of handling the body by communicating specific sensa
tions to the central nervous system in order to improve the functions of
the motor system.
Functional Integration is unique in that it evokes changes in the
human brain at a level heretofore thought unachievable by any known
therapeutic technique; muscular tonicity-even spasticity-is actually
modified, the range of movement is enhanced, movement becomes
more coordinated, and the overall efficiency and comfort of muscular
functioning is increased.
In The Feldenkrais Method: Teaching by Handling, Yochanan Rywerant
has devised a framework for understanding an immensely subtle and
elusive technique for human change. Rywerant has successfully created
the archetectonics for understanding a major area of human cybernetic
functioning and, in so doing, has effectively established the vocabulary
for a new area in the field of nonverbal communication. Feldenkrais, the
inventor of this new area of Functional Integration, is also its most bril
liant practitioner, as well as its most inspirational and intuitive teacher.
What Rywerant has accomplished is to have taken this intuitive clarity
and worked it into an ingenious intellectual framework that makes sense
of the technique's elusive subtleties. He has succeeded in removing the
mystery from a method that creates impressive improvements in the
motor system with a remarkable economy of means.
ix
x / The Feldenkrais Method
The two major uses of this volume are, first, as a textbook for those
wishing to learn the practice of Functional Integration and, secondly, as
an explanation of the cybernetic process involved in changing human
movement patterns. The latter makes the learning of the Feldenkrais
technique far easier than would otherwise be possible. Rywerant has
constructed an explanatory superstructure for the technique that makes
it clear that there are levels of human communication and transforma
tion whose existence was scarcely suspected before the appearance of
F eldenkrais.
Rywerant's conception of the "manipulon" as a basic unit of nonver
bal communication is at the heart of this cybernetic theory. And his dis
cussion of the different types of manipulons gives a comprehensive
description of the discrete ways in which "handling" can communicate
information to the brain. His discussion of the functions of the brain and
central nervous system are clear and very much to the point; this clarity
allows us to understand how the manipulatory sessions have a certain
prescribed form and way of proceeding.
Yochanan Rywerant was born November 7, 1922, in Bucharest,
Romania. He lived the bulk of his youth in the city of Cernauti until
World War II. Although he had studied for eight years as a violinist,
when he entered the University of Cernauti in 1939 he chose to study
mathematics. However, after one year of university work, the war inter
vened and Rywerant, a Jew, was shipped off to a forced labor camp.
After his liberation at the end of the war, Rywerant attempted to
immigrate to Palestine, which was at that time under British mandate.
But before he could reach Palestine he was intercepted by the British
navy and interned in Cyprus for six months in 1947. In 1948 he man
aged to escape from Cyprus as a stowaway aboard a British ship bound
for Palestine (now Israel), where he adroitly shimmied down a mooring
line and set foot for the first time in his adopted land. .
Following service with the Israeli Defense Forces, Rywerant com
pleted his studies in mathematics and physics at Hebrew University,
Jerusalem. In 1952 he accepted a post as physics professor in a second
ary school in Givataim, a suburb of Tel Aviv. In that same year he mar
ried the distinguished Israeli-born composer Yardena Alotin and the two
have continued living in Tel Aviv since that time.
Also in 1952 Rywerant first met Moshe Feldenkrais, who had just
begun his famous series of Awareness-Through-Movement exercise
Preface / xi
classes in Tel Aviv. He attended these classes regularly over the next fif
teen years.
When in 1969 F eldenkrais decided to teach his technique of F unc
tional Integration, Yochanan Rywerant was one of the fourteen mem
bers of his first training group. The training was completed in 1971
after three years. But even before that time, Feldenkrais invited Rywer
ant to become his first assistant in the Feldenkrais Institute on Nach
mani Street. The offer was accepted.
In 1973 Rywerant assisted F eldenkrais in teaching an Awareness
Through-Movement class in Berkeley, California, which was when I
met both men. When, in 1975, Feldenkrais accepted my invitation to
offer a Functional Integration training program in San Francisco-the
first in the United States-Rywerant served as his assistant. This posi
tion as teaching assistant continued into the third training program
offered by F eldenkrais in 1980 at Amherst, Massachusetts.
Through his work at the Feldenkrais Institute, as well as his own pri
vate practice, Yochanan Rywerant has become thoroughly experienced
in the theory, practice, and neurophysiological foundations of Func
tional Integration. Thirty years of acquaintance with Feldenkrais have
imbued him with a lucid vision of the precision and care necessary for
the successful practice of Functional Integration. It is this same vision
that informs the pages of this book and offers the reader an authoritative
account of the Feldenkrais system with all of the exactitude and subtle
ty that Feldenkrais demands.
Rywerant has been previously known to the reading public through
his four remarkable case histories, which I had the pleasure of publish
ing in Somatics magazine. These case histories appear as the last four
chapters of this volume, and they illustrate fully how deliberate, precise,
and effective the techniques of Functional Integration are. The won
derful story of Hanoch's return to the flute displays the "miraculous"
quality that so often accompanies the practice of this technique, just as
it illustrates amply the ability of the human central nervous system to
learn new ways of functioning far beyond what most people believe to
be possible.
The Feldenkrais Method: Teaching by Handling is a major work in the
field of somatics, namely, the field that sees bodily functions as simulta
neously a third-person objective event and a first-person subjective
event of awareness. What Feldenkrais has demonstrated and Rywerant